Harper and Midwest Kind tours, gigs and happenings. Join us on our musical journey around this amazing planet of ours!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Harper and Midwest Kind March Blog, 2014

Hey Everyone,

Finally Spring has arrived here in the USA yay!!! March has been an exciting month. I learned that I have been nominated for FIVE- 2014 Detroit Music Awards- "Outstanding Acoustic Vocalist", "Outstanding World Music Vocalist", "Outstanding World Music Composer", and "Outstanding Blues Recording and Outstanding Acoustic Recording for the Harper and Motor City Josh "Bare Bones" CD. Its such an honor to be nominated. Motor City Josh was also nominated for "Outstanding Blues Instrumentalist" which is very much deserved. Its been a long cold winter here in Michigan. We were very lucky to tour for a month in February to Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee to escape the Polar Vortex. After our last show in SC we headed North to Michigan. It was a pretty uneventful drive until we hit Northern Kentucky and Southern Ohio where a winter storm was barreling through. The roads were icy and treacherous! The going was slow but we got through the worst of it without too much trouble. Once we reached Michigan the roads were dry and we could breathe a sigh of relief. Our driveway was not so good. It had at least a foot of snow on it, so with just the right amount of speed I managed to get the van up the hill and into the garage. Once I got into my house I was struck by how cold it was. I soon realized that my furnace had stopped working and most of our taps were frozen. I couldn't get the furnace working so I decided to get the log fire going to warm up the house. Bobbi got online to the Red Cross website to find out the best way to thaw out frozen pipes and taps. So with space heaters and hair dryers in hand we worked on thawing out our house. It was freezing. Our bass player James Norris was also with us because his van was still stuck in a snow drift on our driveway. Thankfully no major damage was done. The furnace guy came out and fixed the furnace and AAA towed Jame's van out of the drift. So life is good!!!

That week Bobbi and I presented "Australian Didge-ucation" to the Veterans at JVS in Detroit. We had an absolute blast. Great bunch of guys. We plan to have another visit in July. We also took our presentation to the Jackson School of the Arts in downtown Jackson, Michigan. We had a packed house of very enthusiastic children and their parents. We painted didgeridoos and had an all out didgeridoo jam at the end of the session. Our shows at the Plymouth Elks Lodge and Inside Out Gallery in Traverse City were fabulous. The Manistee All Spring and Music Festival held at the stunning Ramsdell Theatre was a lot of fun. We met many talented musicians and I even got to hang with Smokey Bear!!

We are currently on tour to Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Indiana. We have a NE tour planned for the end of April to New York, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire. Then its back to Florida, Alabama, Georgia and New Jersey in May. No Rest for the Blessed!!! Hope to see you out on the road this Spring and Summer!!